Author's note: Sorry if this resembles something. Send me a note ([email protected]) and I'll delete this immediately. It was written in a frantic half-hour when I had to do somethingÉand it was this. It's not beta-read, which means it's undeveloped and not very good.

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

Decomposition

They say there's something about a sunny day that puts people in a good mood, but it just depresses him. It's too bright and fake for his taste. The sun shines because it's hot, and hot things shine. Logical, succinct, perfect. Even Toby couldn't complain with his choice of words. CJ would complain, however, that it was pessimistic.

"You're an optimist, Sam. Sam the sunshine man! She purrs. He thinks her assessment might have been correct. He's a little too bright, a little too fake around them. They don't notice; he stopped caring.

He was an optimist not too terribly long ago. The cheerful disposition made it through the MS scandal (barely). It took awhile to shatter it completely, and in retrospect he isn't entirely surprised that it broke at the hands of a woman. Women after all, like to take hearts and stomp on them with their big high heels. And this particular woman was very stealthy in heels to begin with.

She offered him a ride home as the sun set directly in front of them. The sky turned so many colors he could have cried at the beauty (or from lack of sleepÑboth were worthy causes). She stopped the car, and he leaned over to kiss her. She stiffened as she pushed him away. He was so close; he could smell the strawberry lip-gloss.

"I'm sorry Sam. You'll never be the man I need, and I won't be able to say no to you if I do this. You should go. He nodded in stunned silence and exited the vehicle, watching the car motor down the street. He fiddled with a quarter in his pocket, wincing when he heard it hit the ground. The sun shone off it so brightly he felt he might go blind.

Thus, the end of the cheerful disposition. Either he hides it well, or they don't notice him. He thinks it could be both, and that either way it doesn't matter. He makes a promise to a widow.

"I'm running for Congress," he explains. The last of his hope shattered when his friends could not tell that when he said running, he meant running away.